The Lost Mission
by William McKinney
Summary: When the UNSC Damascus makes a mistake jump to the Covenant homeworld of Sangheilios, Colonel William and his ODST battalion must fight to survive on the homewordl of the enemy that battles for their extinction.
1. Chapter 1

The Lost Mission  
Part one faulty equipment

The deep blackness of space was suddenly ripped asunder as the UNSC _Damascus_ appeared, as if from nowhere, its black hull blocking out stars.  
Colonel William McKinney paced, waiting here on this ship was terrible, no ground under your feet, at the mercy of a bunch of space jockeys. He heard an audible explosion, and he felt the ship list heavily to the side.

The Colonel, six feet eight inches of marine stood still, listening to the alarms piercing around him. He scratched the stubble of beard growth on his chin, the beard the same shining black as his hair.

Will appeared far younger than he really was, appearing to be in his thirties, while really much older. The only evidence of this was the grey specks in his hair.

Sir, weve got reports coming in of covenant boarding the ship. Wills XO, Major Sean Clark said, the Majors white hair reflecting light slightly, giving it an almost shining appearance. He stood almost a foot shorter than the Colonel, topping out at Five ten.

Thanks for the update Major, put that in a memo and title it shit I already know. The ODSTs standing around him looked around anxiously, waiting for his order. Suddenly, the ship board P.A crackled.

Colonel McKinney, report to the bridge, have your ODSTs get to their HEVs immediately. The soldiers around him cheered.

Well, yall heard the lady, hop to it! The men and women under his command began scurrying around, collecting weapons and ammo, policing gear, making sure all was ready for the inevitable drop, feet first into hell.

Admiral Samuel Monroe, grey eyes flashing, called out, Open fire, the main gun! Down to Lieutenant Devont at the weapons station.

Firing main gun! She called back, inputting the firing coordinates. She typed a command and the _Damascus_ shook as it unleashed its super MAC cannon, which ran down the length of the ship, into the nearest Covenant cruiser.

The enemy ship shuddered as the massive slug impacted it, its shield dissipated and the remaining kinetic energy tore the ship apart.

Thats another clean kill sir, though I do not agree with your plan of dumping excess power from the reactor to charge the MACs faster, how do you plan to maneuver, much less escape? The shipboard A.I, Lucy commented dryly.

Lucy, you dont need to agree with my plans just carry them out. He replied, a little angrily.

Aye, Aye sir She answered. She appeared to be a medium build blond, wearing a UNSC Lieutenants uniform. Sir three cruisers closing on the port and starboard side! She called out.

Devont, fire whatever is ready, push them back enough so we have time to charge the main cannon!

Aye sir!

Will moved around the corner slowly, eyeing the pack of grunts with their backs to him. He threw up a quick hand sign, signaling Major Clark and Captain Samson to move quickly to the other side of the bulkhead.

Samson, scratched his shaved head, and then raised the MA5C he carried. The captain was taller than the major, but was still dwarfed by the Colonel.

Will held up his hand, a count down from three. When he lowered his last finger, he whispered Fire. The three soldiers opened up, bullets tearing into the diminutive aliens. Finish up with single head shots. The trio moved out, putting single gunshots into the heads of the dead squad.

All clear, Samson reported Some blood here, appears to be hunter. My guess is their farther up that way. He said, motioning towards the sounds of automatic fire and sizzling plasma.

Well, lets get moving, it sound like they need a little help. Will said. Major Clark chuckled

Sir, if were goin after hunters, dont ya think were gonna need some heavier fire power? Will smiled.

Major, dont you think I have that covered already? Were near an armory, well arm up there. They made several turns, and ended up inside a large armory, guns on their racks and in wall cases, just sitting there ripe for the taking.

Alright, grab just what you can carry, and that includes ammo, Major. Will said.

Awww Colonel... He said, a pair of SPNKr rocket launchers in his arm.

Major, we need to haul ass to the bridge, you think we can do that lugging half the ships arsenal?

No sir. They exited the armory, heading down the hallway, following the cues painted on the floor. They rounded a corner and came upon several Covenant Elites, a few jackals, several grunts and the hunter pair they had been searching for.

The surrounding floor was littered with Marines bodies, and a few grunt corpses. The first elite, a gold armored one, turned around quickly, and sighted the three ODSTs. Major Clark raised his rocket launcher and fired, the first rocket going a little wide, slamming into the wall directly behind the group of Elites.

The all flew forward, the force of the explosion propelling them away from the wall. Sean fired the second rocket just as the hunter pair whirled to face them. This one was better aimed, and it slammed into one of the hulking aliens, blowing it away.

The second one raised its large metal shield just as Will and Sam let lose a barrage of bullets. The hunter extended its arm, the one with the fuel rod cannon affixed on its arm, and fired. The green blast flew toward them, and the trio had barely any time to dive around the corner before it hurtled past, exploding against blast door behind them.

Grenades? Sean asked

Grenades. Will answered. They all primed frag grenades, pulling the pins. Heave em! Will yelled, chucking his grenade around the corner. The other two followed suit then crouched, as awaiting the blast.

The explosion was deafening, and they heard the hunter roar in anger. The turned around the corner smoothly, firing as they turned. The hunters arm had been blown off by the grenades, and it just stood there, stunned by the blast.

The large beast went down in the withering amount of gun fire, finally slumping to the deck. The area around it was coated in orange blood, the walls and ceiling dripping.

Lets get the hell out of here. The colonel said. The traversed the large corpses, moving out into the long corridor.

Cmon, were almost there. Sam said.

Sir, weve suffered extreme damage to decks G-N, were venting atmosphere. She cant take very much more of this punishment before we have zero hull integrity. Lieutenant Stevenson reported from the diagnostics station.

Keep her flying for as long as you can, before too long well be going in any ways. This earned him several surprised looks.

You plan on bringing the ship in, sir? Lieutenant Devont asked him.

Yes lieutenant I really do. He nodded grimly. Before that time all of you will have left in a life boat, am I clear. This order was received with a chorus of no sirs. Ladies and gentle man, that was not a request, I am ordering you all off this boat. You all have no choice in the matter. One of them chuckled.

Sir, do you really think that you by yourself will be able to get us to jump ship? We are willing to wait till your ready to come with us sir. He sighed, feeling a tinge of happiness and guilt at the same time.

Fine, Ill allow you all to stay, but if we survive this, youre all getting a nice big court-martial. This elicited a laugh from everyone.

Yes sir, thank you sir.

Hey, Admiral, you call for a couple of ODSTs? The admiral turned and saw Colonel McKinney and two of his officers walk onto the bridge.

About damn time Colonel, youre late. Will smiled

We wereheld up, by some of our unexpected guests.

Well, Im glad you made it. We have some serious trouble on our hands, Lucy? The A.I appeared on her Holo-tank, crossing her arms over her chest.

The admiral has decided to bring the _Damascus_ in. not to mention the hundreds of covenant swarming all over the ship, oh and He hasnt finished instituting the Cole Protocol yet. Admiral Monroe looked down disapprovingly at the A.I who didnt seem to notice.

Colonel, your priority is to get off this ship and complete your mission, and failing that, get back to Earth. You need to leave now, but first He pressed several buttons on the Holo-tank, and then Lucy disappeared, a small chip ejected out of the console. Keep her safe Colonel, if you manage to get a ship, shell be your only way home. Now, Semper Fi, and god speed.

William saluted smartly. Thank you sir

Captain Alice McBride watched as some techs from the ship and a few marines finished loading computer equipment onto her bird. The Pelican drop ship was completely stock except for the paint job she sported near the cockpit canopy.

The silhouette of a woman with the word Molly had been painted on her bird without her knowledge and when she had tried to have it painted over her request had been denied several times. Though over the course of the years she had taken a liking to it and even had begun call the Pelican Molly affectionately.

You all ready to go back there? She asked.

Yeah, lets get the hell out of here!

Alright Jimmy, lets go. Her co-pilot, James Lorne nodded

Right Captain. They fired up the engines, just as the covenant broke through the ranks of marines defending the hangar doors. They stormed into the hangar firing at the fleeing Marines.

Wait Jimmy dont go just yet. She turned back to look at the guys in the Pelican. Hey, get as many of those marines on this bird as possible!

Yes maam! One called back. They began calling as many marines as they could to board the Pelican while unleashing covering fire to keep the Covenants heads down. More and more marines piled onto the pelican, ducking under the Warthog LRV hanging from the back.

All right, were full, go go go! She yelled. The Pelican lifted up off the deck, turning to face the entrance. They shot out of the hangar, out into the open blackness of space. Alice was glad to see that she had not been the only one with the idea to leave.

All around the pelicans were leaving the hangars, Heading down towards the planet.

Maam we have coordinates for a landing zone and and rally point, we should be met by ODSTs on the ground. She nodded

Good, lets hope we make it.

Colonel William entered Hells waiting room, the ODST prep room. The four hundred or so ODST that made up his unit were ready and waiting.

All right, we have hostiles on the ship and hostiles on the ground. We are going with almost zero Intel aside from the topographic photos weve taken of the LZ and the surrounding area. Load up and get ready, launch on my mark.

The ODSTs loaded into their pods, going through the pre-drop set up. Once every status light shone green he opened up a comm. channel to everyone.

All right, drop in threetwo He input the ODST anthem over the channels, a gross breach of protocol use of the comm. Put it was necessary formoral purposes. We are go for green, I repeat go for green, ladies and gentle men we are on our way, feet first into hell.

All around him he felt the shuddering of drop pods releasing, launching into the black. But his pod hadnt launched. His should have been the first to go, yet it he hadnt.

Son of a bitch.


	2. Chapter 2

The Lost Mission 

Part 2: No rest for the wicked.

Major Sean Clarks drop pod accelerated down through the atmosphere of the planet, the inside heating up immediately. He felt several bumps as the pods parachute deployed, rattling the bone with bone jarring shakes.

Clark felt the jets on the bottom of the pod fire up, slowing his decent considerably. The pod finally slammed into the ground with one final bone jarring thud, rattling the major's body thoroughly.

The door exploded off the pod, and the major hopped out, MA5D at the ready. There were no enemy contacts, just ODSTs coming in for a landing all around him. He checked all the tags and added a pair of ODSTs to the KIA list; their pods must have crashed somewhere volatile, as both of their BIOs were flat lined.

He checked the IFFs again and it was odd, the Colonel was nowhere to be found on it… Wills pod hadn't landed, and it should have been the first one on the ground.

"Hey a guy…where's Will?"

Will ran down the hallway, the ship shaking herself apart. He tripped as a wall panel slammed into his back, but he caught himself before he could slam face first. The old ODST entered the launch bay aboard the Damascus without running into any Covenant that may or may not have been still onboard.

Will searched the area, praying to god that he would find just what he was looking for. But as he moved from section to section it became less and less likely.

Sean waited impatiently as ODSTs arrived quickly from any miss drops. After everyone was accounted for, he quickly outlined the situation. They were on a large covenant controlled planet, and it was indefinite that the covenant would be there soon to kill them.

The Colonel was missing, which left it up to Sean to command. They needed to put distance between themselves and the landing zone as quickly as possible, before the covenant retaliated with heavy stuff. They were bound to come with ghosts and wraiths, the small hover craft carefully guarding the large behemoths that would pound their position relentlessly if they stayed.

They made their way towards the rising hills in the distance that sloped up into large mountains, their peaks obscured by the sky.

As they drew closer they began hearing a faint buzzing over the radios, a slight clicking followed by static, being broadcasted on the UNSCs emergency band. As they came closer and closer, it became the sound of a voice, often obscured, before finally evening out at.

"This is UNSC Pelican Delta 447, any UNSC personnel on planet please respond." Sean grinned inside his helmet.

"Delta 447, this is Major Sean Clark of the 6th ODST battalion under Colonel William, who is this." The voice on the other side sounded truly relieved.

"This is Captain Alice McBride, I'm a pelican pilot, we have four pelicans hidden in the foothills of some mountains to the south. There are about eight other pelicans scattered around this area, all gearing up to pull in to our position."

"All right McBride, we're heading your way, and we'll discuss our next move when we get there."

Will ran into the back of the pelican, hoping he still knew how to fly one of the damn things. He sat in the pilot's chair, skipping the majority of the pre-flight check and lifting the pelican off the deck. He sent a signal to the computer to open bay door, and it slowly slid open revealing a wall of fore lapping against the outside of the ship.

Even where he was it immediately heated up, causing him to begin to sweat slightly. He was lucky the pelican was heat shielded or else he probably would have fried the minute that door opened. He proceeded to push the pelican through the door way, and it dangerously dipped as it left, it's engines refusing to lift it as Will received and agonizing moment of freefall. It fell forward, sailing through the open air when suddenly the engines caught, lifting the pelican, and Will slid the large troopship out of the way of the _Damascus_'s debris trail.

He was out of the ship which meant he was standing on at least one good leg, now about the other. He began scanning all of the UNSC frequency's, trying to pick up a signal.

The four pelicans were well concealed within the cover of a large abnormal rock formation, several massive monolithic stones easily hiding the dropships from view. Major Clark looked over the topographical maps they had received from the _Damascus_ as it came in, several preset automated protocols making that possible.

They revealed a large portion of the country side that the _Damascus_ had passed over on its way in. "Alright, so we have two pelican groups, one with four pelicans the other with two set apart here and here…" The major was saying, pointing out positions on the map, set up on a folding card table.

Captain Alice McBride, Captain Sam Samson, and Captain Alexandra Foster listened to him as he outlined his ideas. "For the moment all we can do is set up a few positions around here, and work out our next move before the covenant come knocking en masse. They haven't come after us yet, which is odd in my opinion but I'm not complaining."

The captains nodded, staring down at the poster seeing the couple of positions he had marked out. "Once those other pelicans arrive with the troops and supplies they carry we should be fine until we need to make a trip to the _Damascus_'s crash site." Alice said.

"Yeah, that is if those other pelicans make it here without running into any heavy covenant forces."Alexandra commented dryly. Clark nodded.

"Let's hope that doesn't happen."

Eado Mortumee stared at the burning trail of debris crashing down through the atmosphere. Certainly no human had managed to survive that? He was hesitant to report anything to his superiors just yet, wanting be sure if humans had survived or not.

The gold armored zealot had been shamed, a terrible punishment had awaited him, as well as a completely destroyed honor, and his family name would be ruined. But the Sangheili in charge of his trial had taken pity on him, having his death faked and the zealot moved to this remote outpost on Sangheilios in the middle of nowhere, from here he could cause no harm.

E relayed several commands to his aide who moved quickly to have them carried out, sending a flight of six Banshees to check on the humans, find out how many, if any survived the crash.

The six small aircraft roared off the top of the base, zooming out over the landscape and then disappearing behind the horizon.

Major Clark turned away from the techies who were examining several crates to learn their contents. They contained rocket launchers and BR-55 Battle Rifles, as well as ammo stowed in the bottom of the crates, though not as much as the major had hoped.

He heard a familiar noise, the high pitched screeching that often marked the entrance of the Covenants low altitude "Banshee" attack craft, as one shot over the makeshift camp, strafing the area with boiling plasma fire.

The shots lashed into the side of a Pelican, boiling metal dripping to the ground below the hits. The Major watched the techs scurry into one of the pelicans, no doubt crouching as far from the door as possible.

Clark grabbed an M-19B surface-to-air missile launcher and popped the small black lens cover off its targeting reticule. It centered it on the first Banshee that had strafed the camp, and a loud beep was heard as the device painted the vehicle.

The major pulled the trigger, shuddering slightly as the weapon fired, and its payload streaked towards the banshee. At first the fighter evaded it, circling fast in a tight barrel roll, but the missile circled around, slamming into the back of the violet attack craft, turning it into a kaleidoscope of burning color as it descended to the ground in flames. One down, another five to go.

The other craft turned to fire, sending a wave of plasma and fuel rods streaking into the ground around the scattering soldiers. A fuel rod flew straight towards the major who jumped out of the way, dropping the SAM launcher in the process.

He rolled behind one of the large rocks and watched the Captain, Samuel, run to one of the warthogs and hop on its back, pulling the M-41 LAG's charging lever before letting loose with a torrent of burning lead towards the circling fighters.

Clark saw the rounds tear up the fins on the back of one of the banshees which careened into the hillside. The explosion shot burning bits of metal in all directions. One of the low altitude attack crafts swung towards the Warthog, firing off a fuel rod round which slammed into the light reconnaissance vehicles hood. The jeep flipped end over end and the captain went flying, skidding across the ground.

There were still four of the banshees, all four keeping a tight pattern and sprayed the rocks and pelicans wherever they saw movement. Suddenly a banshee exploded off to the right, the major only catching the end of the attack in his peripheral vision.

Sean watched as several more missiles slammed into two of the three remaining Banshees, and the third tried to make a run for it before being ripped to pieces by gun fire. The Major leaned out from his position and watched as a pelican circled the camp, obviously the pilot was pleased with his work.

"Echo 334, this is Major Sean Clark, pilot please identify yourself." He heard a chuckle over the radio, before the pilot responded.

"Son, now is that any way to speak to your commanding officer?" The Major smiled.

"It's good to have you back sir; it's been hell without you."

Eado observed the report forwarded to him by A'den Licoremee, his second in command. All six banshees had been annihilated, and the humans had a substantial ground presence. These were not good words, and yet they made the old Zealot smile. He could easily reclaim his honor.

He could tell his superiors about the humans, and have some other Sangheili receive the praise for destroying them, or he could withhold information , and destroy the humans himself and get all of the praise, possibly be promoted to a field commander, and even regain his families destroyed honor.

'Yes,' Eado thought to himself, 'He would have his honor once again.

William pointed towards the object set into the hill shown on the map. "The Banshees came from this base, if we move quickly and capture, we can provide false intelligence to the enemy." The others listened with rapt attention, all four hundred ODSTs and the one hundred or so marines gathered around the eight pelicans.

"We will storm in, put down any resistance as fast as we can, we do not want them calling for reinforcements." He looked over the crowd, before pointing down at the table. "For the first time in human history, we sit on what very well be the home world of our enemy who is hell bent on our destruction.

We will not give in; we will take this position and mount a resistance operation from the ground. I know this sounds crazy, but trust me, we can, and we will do what needs to be done. Not only for our survival, this may well be for the survival of the human race.

The man next to you is your brother in arms, trust him and we'll get through this just fine. You have two hours to gather your gear, load up and be ready to move out. The warthogs and mongeese will be moving in fully loaded, the pelicans will land on the roof, and unload the remaining troops while another pelican stays back with our Techs. Semper Fi."

The last statement was met with an enormous chorus of "Ooh Ra" and "Semper Fi". The men around him jumped to their many tasks, loading up as much ammunition as was possible into the vehicles.

"Sir, we're a little short on ammo for the Pelicans." One tech said from the side.

"It'll be fine, we'll not have them standing around long anyways." The tech nodded before running off to relay the orders to the others. It was close to that time the Colonel loved, that time when it was just you, your rifle and the burning adrenaline pumping through your vanes.

The time when the only thing stopping you from getting shot two dozen times is your wits and whole crap-load of luck.

"God I love this job."

Eado stood gazing out of the enormous window set into the front of the structure jutting out of the side of a mountain. The base was fairly small when compared to other structures like it, but the Zealot was lucky to in charge of it at all, owing everything to a close friend who had presided over his trial.

He shook his head, feeling several pains flash within the confines of his own mind. He had a long and troubled memory, aware of his every sin against the holy covenant. For his heresy he could have easily been put to death, sadly he thought to himself, that would have been far easier than living with, as his old friend had told the counsel who were to punish him for his crimes.

In truth, the real reason he had not been killed probably owed to the fact of the war raging right now. Many high ranking Sangheili had died in the past years, to many to count any more. The humans, though less advanced than his own species, were resilient and smart, often changing who battle plans during a battle that often times had devastating consequences for the covenant troops caught within them.

The humans other devastating tool was secrecy. Without knowledge of their home world, the Covenant was unable to stem the source of their numbers, and the humans went to sometimes extreme lengths to hold their secrets close, known to sometimes blow up a station that had their own kind on it to eliminate the possibility of retrieve any information.

No, the humans were an incredibly dangerous species, and it wasn't the first time Eado found himself wondering what sort of allies they could be if they were only allowed to join the covenant. 'Silence these thoughts!' He berated himself mentally. These thoughts were far too dangerous, and could very well lead to heresy of the worst kind.

Each day he found himself slowly sympathizing with the heretics and, sometimes even the humans. The prophets claimed the humans had defiled holy relics, but so had the Lekgolo and they were now outstanding members of the covenant.

Eado disgustedly turned away from the window. These thoughts would be the death of him.

Will mounted the mongoose, the large ATV sinking only slightly from the ODST, in full armor and a full weapons load out. He carried an MA5K, the cut down variant light and easy to maneuver in tight spaces.

He also carried an M6D, the high powered handgun a favorite of his. The Major pulled himself up onto the back of the vehicle, an M90 shotgun clutched in one hand.

"Clark, how do you intend to use that if you're holding on?" He asked the major, grinned.

"Right, sorry 'bout that sir..." He clipped it onto his back before taking an M-7 from a tech passing with a dolly loaded with guns. He slipped his black helmet on, the polarized faceplate reflecting his surroundings. "Alright, I'm all ready now." He said. The Colonel nodded.

"All UNSC forces this is Colonel McKinney, we are go for green, all forces prepare for the assault, you know your roles get to them, Pelicans hold back until you receive your signal, Semper Fi."

He gunned the mongoose's engine and sped off, dirt shooting up from behind the large back tires. The others vehicles took off after the Colonel. The Pelicans launched themselves up into the air, circling slowly before peeling off after the quickly disappearing vehicles.


End file.
